New Mutants #2: Friends and Family Part 2

Xi’an squinted down the length of the beach. She could clearly see the giant forms of the Sentinels who had landed on the beach and were now stomping back and forth after what appeared to Xi’an as dots on the ground.

The ground exploded following flashes of light as the Sentinel’s fired into the sand. She had seem Cannonball and Magma vanish from sight while Dani appeared to be jogging gently up the beach. She stopped every now and then to turn back and walk back towards he battle before she paused and again began to return to Karma.

Xi’an knew it would be killing Dani if she as Xi’an believed had been sent away from the battle due to her lack of powers. She felt a pang of sympathy for her friend, she knew how Dani did not to back down from a fight and how being powerless to help made her feel.

Xi’an had never had the urge to fight or to act that Dani had but she knew what it was to be useless. Her powers were completely ineffective against anything but people and so whenever Sentinels cropped up Xi’an just had to stay out of harms way so her friends wouldn’t have to worry about her. The truth was that she was far from helpless, she could fight with the best of them and was skilled with a number of weapons such as a sword which she mastered in her time in Asgard but at the moment she couldn’t do anything to her help.

Her role now however was useful she was making sure the people who were amassed behind her were out of harms way. She turned to look at them. Three people were walking towards her.

One was a young looking policeman who held his hat in his hands. The second was a middle aged woman who was slightly over weight but like so many on the beach she wore the smallest bikini she could find. A teenage boy dressed in large boarding shorts made up the third of the trio.

Karma pondered for a second what to do. She could simply take control of their minds and push them away like she had the others on the beach but as one seemed to be a police officer she wasn’t sure. “Hi,” she said nervously. Authority figures always made her nervous thanks to her early years in Vietnam. “I’m sorry about this but were trying to hold…”

The police man raised his arm which seemed to morph before her eyes into a large cannon. Karma launched sideways and landed with a roll as the blast hurtled just past her and exploded with blue energy into a beach umbrella destroying it.

“Unit 1 transform…” said the police officer. His voice went from human to mechanical as he spoke.

“Unit 4 transform…” said the woman.

“Unit 6 transform…” copied the boy.

The flesh of the three seemed to explode away and was replaced with metallic parts as the three transformed into Omega Sentinels. Karma dodged again as another blast was fired. A scream went up from the crowd who were on the walkway just beyond the beach. They began to flee in all directions as a beam of light erupted in their midst. “Leong! Nga!” screamed Karma as she realized her brother and sister could be in trouble from the stampeding crowd. She hoped Melissa had gotten them to safety. She wanted to run to them or reach out to the minds of the crowd but as another blast exploded just feet from her tossing her from her feet she realised the choice wasn’t hers to make.

Dani…

Dani stretched her hands up to her head and cursed. She squinted her eyes towards the raging Sentinels on the water front. Warpath had managed to knock one to the ground and was currently dashing backwards and forwards as he tried to slash it whilst avoiding it’s limbs which flailed back and forth and fired blasts.

Rahne was currently hurtling around the still standing Sentinel at her top speed as he dodged and leapt over it’s tentacles and firing beams of light. There wasn’t much she could honestly do against the Sentinel and they all knew it but she could keep it busy with her signature.

An explosion of light to the far left of her vision made her turn her attention just to see a Sentinel stumble forward and the form of Boom Boom who had just exploded a bomb leap clear of the metal monstrosity she had just brought to it’s knees. Dani was sure she could hear the blonde swearing at the Sentinel as more smaller flashed firecracked off the solid metal frame of the Sentinel’s back.

A lick of solar plasma exploded across it’s back too as Sunspot fired a blast at the downed robot. The second robot the two were handling gently rocked back as the glowing black dot which was Bobby shot across to it and hit it with his full strength.

Dani exhaled strongly and walked a few steps towards them. She could help, she knew she could. She was probably the most skilled fighter on the team and had a keen tactical mind. She could at least be as much help as Rahne was. The second she thought this the speedy dot that was Rahne raced up the Sentinel’s leg and somersaulted across it’s vision to keep it’s attention on her. She thought that maybe she couldn’t and began to walk backwards away from the fight again.

She wished she had a sword or a dagger or a bow. Anything and she would be able to help out in the fight. She turned with a sigh and stared at the sand.

Her vision panned up for a moment to look at Karma. Her friend dodged as an explosion of light ripped up the sand. A human sized shape leapt into the air powered by a burst of light towards Karma and tackled her to the floor.

Dani began to sprint. “KARMA!” she screamed as she ran towards them.

The sea front…

“Come on! Come on you big metal bastard!” Tabitha sprinted forward again before stopping and pitching another little bomb which exploded against the leg of the first Sentinel which was following her.

It raised it’s arm and fired a blast. Boom Boom leapt forward and landed with a roll before getting back up into a run. The second Sentinel was unable to fire because of the position of the first.

The Sentinel launched another blast this time striking to close for comfort tossing Boom Boom into the air. She collided with the sand face first. She coughed as she spluttered up the grains which she sucked into her mouth. She began to climb to her feet but heard the laser ready to fire. A strong grip grabbed her sharply and she was pulled into the air as the blast ripped through the sand blowing it into the sky. “Don’t antagonise the Tin Men!” lectured Sunspot. He turned in the air so they were again facing the Sentinels.

“Get me behind them!” ordered Tabby. Roberto dove sideways holding her arms as he avoided the laser blast. The Sentinels trailed them as he swept in an arc around them. He dropped Boomer who landed with a roll. It looked as if they were ready to turn and face her when Roberto launched forward. He hurled blasts of plasma into the faces of each Sentinel.

“Over here Robbie!” laughed Sunspot he dodged the blast again and kept backing up. He was sure to keep one Sentinel walking in front of the other so they couldn’t gang up on him. His eyes watched as Tabitha ran at a reasonable pace to keep up with the robots. In her hands glowed a large yellowy orange ball of energy which crackled. It was currently the size of a basketball.

She was happy with the size of the bomb and focused for a second on freezing it in place and keeping it constantly brimming with energy rather than expanding. It was how she built time bombs. She watched the ankle joint on the Sentinel as it lumbered forward. The foot changed position a second before it hit the ground leaving a gap. She counted to three as the foot came down and then pushed the bomb forward with both hands and dove clear. The pressure of the leg coming down did the rest. The leg of the Sentinel exploded toppling it sideways onto the beach.

The Sentinel lay face down in the sand for a few seconds until it’s elbows jolted upwards and it’s hands pressed into the sand. Boom Boom stopped jumping giddily and swore. It bent it’s remaining knee and then topple sideways again. It repeated the same process again.

Boom Boom smiled to herself as she calmly walked up the length of the robot. She was careful not to get too cocky and to be sure to keep out of it’s reach as it raised itself and then dropped down again. “Whoever sent you I hope your listening,” she walked up near it’s head. “That’s the problem with robots, they can’t adapt. You’ve programmed it to get up to it’s feet…it hasn’t got the sense not to rest it’s weight where it hasn’t got support.”

The Sentinel’s head jerked forward followed by it’s arm. “Mutant signature detected!” Tabby didn’t think as she jerked out her arm and fired off a wave of energy rather than a bomb. Constant and strong just like Pete Wisdom had taught her. The head sparked from it’s eyes and mouth for a second before the energy in it’s head died completely.

Further up the beach Warpath was having a little more fun with his downed Sentinel. The arm of the robot swung at him again. He leapt over the arm and somersaulted his body before straightening out and coming down driving his blade through the arm again. The metal casing on a part of his arm had been cut to shreds exposing it’s inner workings.

He was probably the most adept at fighting the metal monsters they faced. He had strength equal too or greater than that of the machines. He had weapons which could cut through their outer hides when no other weapon could. He with this super strength had senses of smell and hearing as sharp as Wolfsbane and eyed better than a hawk. He could move at speeds only Cannonball could equal and with it came reflexes at that speed. Everything the Sentinels did was in near slow motion to him.

He had heard the yelling of Boom Boom down the length of the sand and knew the message she had sent to whoever was controlling these things. He also knew she was wrong. The Sentinel had begun to adapt already in the same way it had tried to shoot her but the fact was it couldn’t do it first time or even second. It had to try and climb to it’s leg, it had to try and swat him but now he had managed to dodge it several times and it was adapting.

The head of the Sentinel and it’s hand moved to focused on Warpath. He stood perfectly still. His ears and his eyes monitored the large glass circle in the Sentinels hand and it’s eyes (sensors and smaller laser array). He could smell the chemicals of the laser mixing. He could see the energy building and feel the heat it was giving off. He waited until both fired.

The beams sped past one another and into the air as the Sentinel gave up an electrical scream. Warpath however was standing on the other side of the Sentinel. His blades were still stuck hard in it’s side following two long gouge marks along it’s back where he had sliced it’s electronic relay ‘spine’ as he vaulted over it after pressing his full force into cutting it’s hide.